Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-12-01
ALLAN QUARTERNAlN.
OR
A BROWNING CITY

"Ay. Macunazahn. mine is a red trade,
yet it is better and more honest than some.
Better is it to Stay q man in fair fight than
to suck out his hearts blood in buying and
selling. and usury after your white fash
ion. Many man have slain, yet iSthere
never a one that [ should fear to look in
the face again; ay, many are there who
once were friends and whom / should be
right glad to snuff with. But there. there
thou hast thy ways and / mine; each to his
own people and his own place. The high
veldt OK will die in the fat bush country,
and so is it with me- Macumazahn [ am
rough, know it, aud when my blood is
warm / know not what / do but yet wilt
thou be sorry when the night swallows me,
and / am utterly lost in the blackness, for
in thy heart thou lowest me, my father,
Macumazahn the fox, though | be naught
but broken down Zulu war-dog-a chief
for whom there is no room in his own kraal,
an outcast and a Wanderer in strange
places; ay. I love thee, Macumazahn. for
we have grown gray together and there
is that between us that cannot be seen, and
yet is too strong for breaking"
GAY, old wolf, - | said, chime is q strange
love. Thou wouldst split me 10 the chin ii
stood in thy path tomorrow.
Thou SDeakest truth, Macumaz3hn; that
would | if it came in the way of duty; but
should love thee Ill the same when the
chance of some fighting here. Macuma-
Zahn" he went on, in an insinuating voice.
'MethOught that what j saw last night
did show that the two great Queens were
vexed one with another Else had the
Lady OF the Night not brought that dag
ger with herr
agreed with him that it showed that
more or less pique and irritation existed
between the ladies, and told him how things
stood, and that they were quarrelling over
Incubu.
'FAh, is it sop he exclaimed, springing
up in delight; ''then viii there be war as
surely as the rivers rise in the rains-war
to the end. Women love the last blow rs
well as the last word, and when they figlt
for love they are pitiless as q wounded buff
falo. See thou, Macumazahn, woman
will swim through blood to her desire, and
think nought of it. With these eyes have
/ seen it once, and twice also. All, Ma
cumaZahn, we shall see this fine place OF
houses burning yet. and hear the battle
cries come ringing up the street. After all,
/ have not wandered for nothing. Can this
folk fight, think ye?"
Just then Sir Henry joined Us. and Good
arrived, too, from another direction, look
ing very pale and hOlloW-eyed The mo-
ment Umslopogaas saw the latter he stop
ped his bloodthirSty talk and greeted him.
'Ah, Bougwan, - he cried, greeting to
thee, Inkoos, thou art surely weary. Didst
thou hunt too much yesterday" Then,
without waiting for an answer, he went on:
Listen, Bougwan, and | will tell thee
story; it is about woman, therefore wilt
thou hear it, is it not so?
''There was a man and he had q brother,
ana there was g. woman who loved the
mans brother and was beloved Of the man.
But the mans brother had favOrite wife
and loved not the woman, and he made g.
mock of her. Then the woman, being very
GINNING and 1ierce-hearted for revenge
hp
man, L love thee, and If thou wilt make
war upon thy brother / will marry thee
And he knew it was q lie, yet because of
his great love of the woman, who was very
fair, did he listen to her words and made
war And when many people had been
killed, his brother sent to him, saying.
why slayest thou me? What hurt have
dqn me p1 n16 thee2 From my youth up have
did not nurture thee, and have we not
gone down to war together and divided the
cattle, girl by girl, OK by OK, and COW by
COW? Why slayeSt thou me, my brother,
son of my own mother?'
''Then the mans heart was heavy, and
he knew that his path was evil, and he put
aside the tempting of the woman and
ceased to make war on his brother, and
lived at peace in the same kraal with him.
And after a time the woman came to him
and said. 1 have lost the past, win be thy
wife. And in his heart he knew that it
thing, yet because Of his love did he take
her to wife.
''And the very night that they were wed,
when the man was plunged into a deep
sleep, did the woman 2rise and take his AK
from his hand and creep into the hut of his
brother and Stay him in his rest. Then
did she stink back like a gorged Goness
and place the thong of the red ak back up
on his wrist and 90 her ways.
'And at the dawning the people came
shouting, TIousta is slain in the night.
and they came unto the hut of the man
and there he lay asleep, and by him was the
red ak. Then did they remember the war
and say, LOT he hath of a surety slain his
brother and they would have taken and
killed him. but he rose and fled swiftly,
and as he fieeted by he slew the woman.
but death could not wipe out the evil
she had done, and on him rested the weight
of all her sin. Therefore is he an outcast
and his name scorn among his own peo-
pie; for on him, and him only, resteth the
burden of her who betrayed. And, there
fore, does he wander afar, without a lraal
and without an OK or a wife, and there
fore will he die afar like stricken buck
and his name be accused from generation
to generation, in that the people say that
he slew his brother, LouSta, by treachery
in the nighttime"
The old Zulu paused, and saw that he
was deeply aCitated by his own story.
Presently he lifted his head, which he had
bowed to his breast, and went on:
Il was that man, Bougwan. Out I was
that man, and now hark thoul Even as l
am so wilt thou be-a tool, a play thing, an
OK of burden to carry the evil deeds Of an
other. Listen! When tfou didSt creep af-
ter the Lady of the Night Twas hard upon
thy track. When she struck thee with the
knife in the sleeping-place of the White
Queen, I was there also; when thou didst
let her slip away like a snake in the stones,
1 saw thee, and l knew that she had he
witched thee, and that q true man had
abandoned the truth, and he who Acre
time loved a straight path had taken g
crooked way. Forgive me. my father. if
my words are sharp, but cut of full heart
ere they spoken. See her no more, or shalt
thou go down with honor to the grave
Else because of the beauty of woman
that weareth as q garment of fur shalt
thou be even as | am, and perchance with
more cause. / have said
Throughout this long and eloquent adj
dress Good had been perfectly silent, but
when the tale began to shape itself so aptly
to his own case, he colored up, and when
he learned that what had passed between
him and SoraiS had been overSeen, he was
evidently much distressed